


Connecting

by Traxits



Category: DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Shazam (Comics)
Genre: Also some implied Jason/Roy, And Roy+Billy, M/M, Prompt Fic, Wordcount: 100-1.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-05
Updated: 2016-03-05
Packaged: 2018-05-24 22:35:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6169285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Traxits/pseuds/Traxits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Roy notices that Billy has a few of Jason's problems.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Connecting

**Author's Note:**

> I really wanted to play a bit with Roy's role in the whole Jason/Billy thing I've been toying with, and I enjoyed it! I might have to write more with Roy in it.
> 
> Prompt 79: Starvation

Roy had a list that he liked to use to make sure that Jaybird got enough touch to survive on. Because he knew better than to trust Jason with it. After all, Jason had learned his touch-gathering skills from Bruce Wayne, who thought the only way was seducing every skirt in a room. And barring any nice skirts in the room, to seduce the nicest pair of trousers there instead.

And be seen leaving with them. Publicly. As publicly as possible. Complete with sending the pictures to the tabloids himself if he had to.

Thankfully, Jason didn't go that far, but Roy wouldn't have been surprised at all to know that he had a little horde of pictures hidden away somewhere. Or hell, maybe he did take those pictures, then mail them to Bruce just to twist the knife a bit. Roy never knew, and honestly, Jason never gave him any indication one way or the other how he was going to feel about Bruce on a given day. Sometimes it was just carelessness and shrugs and wry grins when something came up that they knew would piss Bruce off. Then there were the other days. The days that sometimes scared Roy just a little, if he were being completely honest.

Which he wasn't. Not often. Because if he was completely honest, then he'd have to admit how he really wanted a drink, how he really wanted more than just those damn glasses of champagne that he ordered on the plane that he never touched, or the drinks Jason would order in the bars they ducked into when they were on a mission. He wasn't really feeling like admitting any of that to himself, so he didn't. Besides. Honesty was overrated.

Or at least, it had been. Until Shazam started hanging out with them. And then the first time Roy had spotted the kid standing in the kitchen instead, his head in the fridge and Jason's stupid tea on the stove—

Well. Roy was still working through that concept. Somehow, even having watched Shazam turn into Billy and vice versa, it didn't seem real. And even worse was how Shazam and Billy were somehow both the same person and separate, and honestly (more of that crap he wasn't too interested in), Roy had just shaken it all off and headed into his lab.

His lab was a much safer place to be.

But his lab didn't work down the checklist that he slowly realized Billy also filled, box for box, same as Jason.

Irritable? Check.

Grumpy as all sin? Check.

Closed off from the world and every pathetic soul in it? Oh, there weren't enough check marks in the world for that.

So Roy had sighed and started incorporating Billy into the same routine he used with Jason. It was easy enough. Drape over the kid when he got the chance. Keep an arm over his shoulder. Ruffle his hair whenever Roy walked by. Make sure that their fingers brushed whenever he handed Billy anything. Billy's narrowed eyes at each infraction, which just proved the point that Roy hadn't wanted to know. But the kid leaned into most of the touch, no matter how irritated he looked at the initiation.

He balked at hugs though, so Roy sighed and hung that one up. At least, so long as Billy was Billy and not Shazam. Shazam loved hugs. And he gave great ones, damn near lifting everyone he hugged off the floor and spinning them a little bit.

Walking in on Billy curled up in Jason's lap was a relief, and Roy smiled, deciding that was good for both of them. Whenever Jason saw him, he reached up to coax Roy over, and Billy was a sweet enough kid that he didn't wake up. He didn't have Roy's paranoia or Jason's ninja reflexes to jerk him awake. It was dangerously easy to sink down on the couch beside them and lean against Jason's shoulder and watch the nonsense Jason had found on TV. Or, as was more likely, whatever nonsense Billy had found before he zonked out. The kid didn't get near enough sleep, and Roy recognized that in his face. He saw it in his own every time he looked in the mirror, saw it in Jason's every time he looked over at his partner in crime. Er. Heroing. Whatever they were doing.

Not long ago, he'd have insisted on 'partner in crime,' but that seemed weird with Shazam in the room. Shazam was the nicest person Roy had ever met, all genuine and caring. Roy wasn't sure he could, even jokingly, call them partners in crime anymore, not with Shazam occasionally tagging along for support. Not knowing full well that Shazam backed them whenever their names came up with the Justice League. Superman had mentioned it the last time he'd dropped by to check on them for Ollie and Bruce. Along with the sharp warning that they better be taking care of Shazam. Taking care of _Shazam_ , hah. Shazam wasn't the one who needed taking care of.

He glanced over at Billy, asleep in Jason's arms, his head against Jason's collar, and Roy smiled as he reached out to brush two fingers against the edge of Billy's hand. Jason watched him with that same quiet expression he always wore after meditation, and Roy was almost certain that there was a smile on his face too. Poor touch-starved little guy, Roy decided. But at least there were two of them, at they were getting better.


End file.
